The Odyssey vs A TIME OF KINGS

This weekend the new Odyssey film launched to much controversy. Pre-launch buzz complained about everything from taking liberties with the plot to casting actors who didn't fit the historical characters. I could understand how many fans wanted their expectations met - expectations groomed from school readings and past films. I just wanted an epic movie. I got one, albeit different than what I'd expected. In art we like to judge the product for itself, free from other influences. At least I do. Hence, as a movie it worked well, in my opinion - if I wasn't trying to compare it to Homer's poem. It was a good three hours of entertainment regardless of what nitpicking I may wish to do.

So how does this film and its source material relate to my forthcoming novel A TIME OF KINGS? 

First, they are both stories about war and its aftermath. In the greater picture in both the movie and my novel, the war our major players go through changes them and impacts all that follows. That is a common theme in most war stories: how the event affects the men (and women) involved in it, including those not directly on the ground for the violence, those who remain back home. In the film and poem, Odysseus strives to reach home after ten years at war but is delayed by many misadventures. In A TIME OF KINGS the war is short-lived yet devastating for those involved. The travel home is less eventful or lengthy. Yet our narrator is morally wounded by what transpires.

Second, both are stories about redemption (in my humble opinion). That is: how each hero wishes to be seen - in these cases - even after all the badness they have perpetrated. We want to return home and see it like it was before - yet we have changed in the interval and so home necessarily changes by reflection. Therefore, how do we reconcile the two versions of us - the before and the after? In A TIME OF KINGS the question permeates the second half of the novel as our narrator seeks to resolve the conflicts within him.

Third, the technical issues some critics have raised regarding events, ship design, weapons and armor, scene settings, and so on. Granted, most of us wouldn't know or care what may be historically inaccurate. What is presented on screen is engaging enough to draw us through whatever technical issues may cloud the experience. 

In A TIME OF KINGS, I have pledged to be historically accurate. As a dramatic epic set in the future, I can guarantee its accuracy. For a medieval story, I need not depend on what was historically accurate in the past; it is all in the future now and subject to change as needed. Suppose after the collapse of civilization all that remained were books on King Arthur from which to draw plans for a new civilization. (This is not the case in my novel but some might speculate.)

I've spent my time this week promoting the launch next month of A TIME OF KINGS all while entertaining various opinions about The Odyssey film. I see some parallels, as I mentioned above. Mostly, the tale of Odysseus trying to get home, to find that origin point as a place of comfort, is different from what my narrator does. 

As a boy stumbling onto a battlefield and saved by the king, "Jack" has a unique perspective. He grows up in the Court of Louis, gets training as a physician, and becomes the Royal doctor in the Court of Chicageaux - named after the Quebecker insurgency of the late 2400s. At first he's a flaneur, an observer of life, then a minor player as the drama unfolds, to master of his own story after the war. "Jack" is an adopted name; he is actually descended from the Baumann family line of the FLU SEASON SAGA, especially The Warriors Baumann. Jack becomes the hero of his own tale in the second half of the epic. It is a kind of homecoming: to return to who you once were, who you always wanted to be, fresh and without sin, everything settled.

For more background on A TIME OF KINGS, including its own origin story, click here. This epic novel about the kingdoms of the Americus in 2988 to 3079 features twin princes warring against each other, Royal deceit and Court intrigue, young love and old wisdom, the vagaries of society in that future era, and most of all: how we live our lives surrounded by forces we cannot control nor hide from. Our narrator, Jack, learns those lessons well. More on the major players in the next blog post.

A TIME OF KINGS launches on August 8, 2026 in both paperback and for Kindle.

*I would be remiss were I to not remind everyone of this modern take on the Odyssey story: After Ilium (2012).

Three thousand years ago Greek fought Trojan below the fortress of Ilium. Now it is 1993 and new college graduate Alex Parris cruises to Istanbul, seeking his own adventure at Ilium. He meets Elena, the mysterious older woman who easily draws him into an affair only to force him to fight for her. For Alex, escaping from the local jail is the first of many obstacles to returning to his lover, as the cruel odyssey across the Turkish coast tests his will to survive.

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